<p>well race cars can mean a lot of things.</p>
<p>if by racecar you mean nascar - they generally have those ancient powerglide transmissions (2 gears) and yes they have foot operated clutches. </p>
<p>if by racecar you mean the gt2 and gt3 class race cars (which are the racing versions of like vipers, porsches, bmws, mercedes) then those are either foot operated clutches or tiptronic.</p>
<p>if by racecar you mean an formula 1 car, they all have tiptronic.</p>
<p>if by race car you mean like a porsche 911, or a bmw m3, or a lamborghini then they come in manual or tiptronic/manumatic.</p>
<p>but even some the fastest cars in the world (like the mercedes slr mclaren) still use regular automatic transmissions (al biet a super high performance automatic).</p>
<p>For the most part though, I would say that the super high performance cars are going away from manuals and going towards the manumatic/tiptronic (at least for the 0-60 times). Its important to know that these types of transmissions have clutches - however they are computer operated and you don't use a 3rd pedal. an automatic car like your mom's caravan or your dads camry will have a torque converter (which is what robs an engine of its power).</p>
<p>happypoo, not rally, most dont have clutches. They're semiautomatic. Like Formula 1 cars have switches on the sides of the steering wheel that switch gears.</p>
<p>dima, those cars have clutches, just not clutch pedals.</p>
<p>a clutch is a device which connects the engine to the driveshaft. on tiptronic cars (at least real tiptronic cars like porsches tiptronic, or bmw's smg system) there is a clutch, which is computer operated. as opposed to automatic cars with gear locks (when the shift lever has options like D, D3, 2, 1) or something like that (like audis automatics where you push the shifter over and move it up to go up or down to go down a gear).</p>
<p>that's what i meant, no pedals.</p>
<p>I have another question: I still don't know what are all the scenarios that cause a car to stall. Does is stall whenever you let off the gas completely and the clutch is not pushed in all the way? I know that if you let off the clutch too quickly when you start you can stall, but what about when you're shifting? Does it just jump and keep going, or does it stall even if it's in motion?</p>
<p>A friend of mine told me that they would teach me with their car, but I've never had much interest in learning...so I haven't bothered to take them up on the offer.</p>
<p>You aren't lame for not knowing how to drive a manual, but you could be lame for reasons unknown to any of us.</p>
<p>a manual car stalls when the clutch is out and the wheels are moving slower than the minimum speed of the engine. So if at a stand still you let the clutch out really fast without giving the car any gas, the engine won't have enough power at its idle rpm to overcome the inertia keeping the car still, therefore it stalls.</p>
<p>Applying the same principle, if you slow down from any mph to a stop, or to an extremely low speed in high gear (say 3 mph in 5th gear), the car will stall if the clutch is not disengaged.</p>
<p>the opposite effect of stalling from a stand still is spinning the wheels. you do this by bringing an engine to its peak powerband (usually in the 4000-6000 rpm range on a 4 or 6 cylinder) and dropping the clutch (letting it out very fast). The result would be that the wheels loose all traction and spin, while moving the car very slowly - although if you use your breaks lightly you can do it from a complete stand still. Spinning your wheels like taht is impossible in a 4wd or awd car.</p>